Sidmouth patients benefit from Hospiscare nurses aid

MORE patients, including those in the Sid Valley, will benefit from the expertise of Hospiscare nurses out of hours.

A new service being trialled gives healthcare professionals across Exeter, East and Mid Devon direct access overnight to the on-call Hospiscare nurse.

This means the nurse’s specialist knowledge and experience can be used to help any patient, not just those in the care of charity.

Liz Gibbons, Hospiscare’s director of nursing, said Hospiscare has, for years, been running an overnight advice line for its own patients.

Now the charity is keen to ensure its nurses’ expertise is more widely available.

“Everything is scary at three o’clock in the morning,” said Liz. “But often we can give immediate advice which can resolve a problem and reassure the worried patient or carer.”

Emergency calls out of hours will continue to be handled by Devon Doctors and the South West Ambulance Service, but now doctors, nurses and paramedics on duty can ring the Hospiscare nurse in appropriate cases.

Liz said: “This is about Hospiscare offering our palliative expertise to help more patients by supporting our professional colleagues.”

The new service is to be trialled for six months.